Instead, this cell squats in a vacuole until the time comes for its host to divide. What happens next researchers are only beginning to understand, and their discoveries are shedding new light on aggressive cancers.

“All amoebae have a single nucleus and a simple contractile vacuole.” (A vacuole is basically an intake, outgo cavity in the cell — which is to say it eats and evacuates from the same place — if I've got that wrong, don't tell me).

Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site.